What was claimed
A new rule will mean that passengers at major UK airports like Heathrow, Gatwick and Manchester will have to pay a £10 fee to use the toilet.
Our verdict
False. Both Heathrow and Gatwick airports have confirmed there are no such plans to start charging people for using toilets.
Videos circulating online claim that a new rule will mean passengers at major UK airports including Heathrow and Gatwick will have to pay a £10 fee to use the toilet.
But this isn’t true. Spokespeople for both Heathrow and Gatwick airports told Full Fact the claim was completely false and confirmed there are no such plans to start charging people to use the toilet.
The videos have been shared on Facebook and TikTok with some claiming that the new “toilet entry fee” will apply to both first class and economy passengers, and will require people to scan their boarding passes and tap payment cards to use the facilities. The change is supposedly to fund cleaner and more modern facilities.
One version appears to mimic the voice of the Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer making the announcement, but the clip is overdubbed and appears to be taken from his appearance at the Labour Party Conference in September 2024, where there was no such announcement on airport toilet fees.
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While the voice used in this video bears some resemblance to Mr Starmer’s, the unnatural cadence and intonation means it was probably generated by artificial intelligence (AI), though we can’t rule out that an impersonator was used.
We could find no media reports of Mr Starmer making any such announcement about a £10 toilet fee for major airports, and we also couldn’t find any record of it in Hansard, the official record of what is said in parliament.
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as false because no such fees are coming into effect—both Heathrow and Gatwick airports have confirmed they have no such plans to start charging people for using toilets.
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